Introducing Jaybay as the Community Leader for Dogs

Hi,

Please join me in welcoming Jaybay as the new Community Leader for the Dogs Community. Our Pets communities are a bit unique at MedHelp, but they have really turned into wonderful communities, especially the Dogs & Cats ones. Jaybay has been a longtime member here, is clearly a dog lover and has been a great help to many of the members here. We're excited to have her agree to help us out in here and to work with us to continue improving and growing this great community.

I'd also like to give a warm thanks to lonewolf07 who was the previous Community Leader and was a big help. We're happy she's still going to be a part of the community and continue helping out all of the dog owners at MedHelp.

MedHelp

[Jaybay]

Thanks for the introduction and the opportunity to be of a somewhat bigger part of Med Help as a whole and the Dogs community in particular.  Yes, I am an avowed dog lover, and since I was never able to have children, my pets are my family.  In addition to our 2 dogs, Maggie and Doc Holliday, Hubby and I also have 2 huge goldfish (Fred and Wilma), a 20-year-old cockatiel named Petey, and a Quaker parrot named Nick.  All the dogs and birds with the exception of Petey were rescues, so I am a huge proponent of rescue and adoption.  You could also consider the goldfish as rescues since they were originally intended to be feeder fish - given to me as a joke from a neighbor who knew there was no way I'd ever send them spinning down the toilet.  He was right.  They're now 8" long and in a 50-gallon aquarium. LOL!

While my knowledge is weak on the veterinary medicine side, I've learned a lot about dog behavior issues over the years and hope to pass on some tips and tricks wherever I can.  I'm also happy to research any specific medical conditions if that would be helpful to anyone.  I am retired due to disability so I've got plenty of time to do some extra Googling.  :-)

For newcomers to this forum, there are some extremely knowledgeable folks in the Dogs community; some of whom work in veterinary medicine.  Med Help also has a practicing veterinarian, Dr. Aleda Cheng, who can be reached on the Ask a Vet forum.  Dr. Cheng graciously volunteers her time so that forum is free of charge.  In addition to practicing traditional western veterinary medicine, Dr. Cheng also practices traditional Chinese holistic medicine.  Her knowledge is a true godsend for everyone here.

Here's to having a great time with all our various critters!
Jennifer

[Savas]

Who says dogs & cats can't live in harmony? Welcome from the cat side of the community.  Kibble and treats for all!

Savas - cat community leader

[Jaybay]

LOL!  Believe me, I'd have cats here too if my husband weren't so allergic to the little critters.  I grew up with cats and didn't have a dog until after I was married.  When I was a kid, the only dogs I knew in our neighborhood were stinky, smelly, leg-humping, ill-behaved jerks.  Because of that early impression, I resisted my husband's urging to bring a dog into our home for years.  

As it turned out, it was my insistence on rescuing a nearly hairless, mange-ridden, flea-infested, starving 6-week-old puppy that got me started with dogs.  Hubby was NOT happy to drive home for 2 hours with that smelly pup, but there was no way I was leaving him out in the boondocks to die - which he would have done in another day or two had we not taken him in.  Travis was the best dog we've ever had, and everyone who saw him in that first month said, "Won't live!  He's a wreck!"  Yeah, he was a wreck all right and it took over 4 years to completely get rid of the mange and turn into the handsome boy who everybody loved.  Even "cat people" loved Travis.  Well, he sure showed them!  :-)

[peekawho]

We are sure happy to have you here!  Welcome, and congrats!

[laramier]

Welcome!

[chihuahuagrandma]

Yes, thank you Lonewolf07, very much appreciated you:o)
Look forward to Jaybay comments...

[ddeiman]

congrats jaybay! you will do a great job I'm sure. we usually agree on our advice, lol.

[Jaybay]

LOL!  Great minds think alike and all that, right?  ;-)  I'm so glad you're on the forum - you have a whole lot of knowledge that's helped out too many people to count.  :-)

[ddeiman]

Thanks I just wish I could be on more often but I have a 10 month old who keeps me very busy and I have been recovering from major surgery too but I hope to be on as much as I can and offer some insight and tips. Knowledge is power and educating pet owners on the right course of action and how to save money too is SO important! Sometimes I don't always get a chance to visit the forum but I do check my email and when someone posts me a note or message to my profile I respond asap in case you want my advice or anything. Good Luck and keep up the good work. Animal lovers need to stick together :)

[Savas]

Heh heh....see, I'm the exact opposite. i grew up with dogs. Big dogs, little dogs, medium dogs, dogs you could ride like a horse to work... :)

I grew up early on in a rural country area and people's dogs were always jumping out of the car window or out of the back of a truck while passing through. For some reason, they always ended up on our property.
We found a pure bred Great Dane one time we were dying to keep, but we tracked the owner down so ah well... I was going to saddle that puppy and ride it to school!

Apartment living in NY has turned me into a temporary cat person. That, and my wife was always dragging strays home. We had to start working with the fosterage organization just in self defense, or I'd have been knee deep in cats!

Oh, I keep forgetting, do you request stickying something or is there a trick to it? There's some threads I wanted to put up on basic stuff that keeps coming up, and I keep forgetting to ask about this.

[Jaybay]

I didn't put the pinned post on the forum, and don't believe CLs have the capability.  I've seen requests on other forums here for sticky posts, and if I remember correctly, that capability is strictly up to the admins and mods.  I suspect they're relying on the Health Page formats to keep the boards as "sticky free" as possible for the moment, but I could be wrong.  You can always email them for clarification on that one.

Knee deep in cats?!!  AAAGGGHHH!!!!  My dogs don't even get to LOOK at this page.  LOL!

We've done our share of rescue work as well.  I've lost count of the number of dogs we've reunited with owners around here.  The best (and weirdest) of those involved a little min pin.  Hubby found her racing around a busy intersection at rush hour and brought her home.  No collar no tags.  I brought her with me door-to-door in the general area the next day asking people if they knew her, and next thing you know she was back home.  "Home" was actually a broken home and she was staying temporarily with her owner's mom.  I mentioned that my neighbor's parents were looking for a small dog, so if she didn't want to keep the dog I could put her in touch with them.  That very afternoon I got a phone call that the woman's son and soon-to-be-ex daughter-in-law decided to let the dog go.  The min pin went to her new family in a few days, and has been very happily living on 2 acres with a Boston bull dog for the past 4 years.  Don't you just love a happy ending?  :-)

[suzi-q]

Congrats to a wonderful person!  You are a wealth of knowledge as well as a truly compassionate person who always finds the words that we need to hear.  Thank you for everything!

[Savas]

That is great. I rarely see stray dogs now (one thing they're good about in manhattan, is rounding them up instantly. Although the Bronx and Brooklyn have packs of wild dogs roaming about certain parks that can be quite dangerous. Every now and again there are attacks. They tend to go after children). They try to catch them (funding allowing) but they're wicked smart.

I do notice a lost dog always seems to be moving with a purpose;

"I don't know where I'm heading but I'll get there efficiently and quickly!" seems to be the attitude. :)

We had a basset when I was kid who wandered over to my mother while she was at a friends. When she was driving home there was this basset hound in the mirror, doing it's best to keep up with the car on it's stubby little legs. She pulled over and let it in the car, taking it home.

I got home to find she'd gotten scared (it was a very friendly, very strong dog) and locked it in MY room. I'm looking through the window with her at a large basset hound that had taken up residence on MY bed. :)

We named it Leroy. He was possibly the stupidest, friendliest, strongest dog I have ever met (That dog could snap a 200 pd tension line with just his neck).